Homilies on the Song of Songs, Homilia I

Songs, and the Song of Songs; four dramatis personae§1

1How we have learned through Moses that there are things not only holy, but holy of holies, and others not only sabbaths, but sabbaths of sabbaths — so now too we are taught, Solomon writing, that there are songs not only songs, but a Song of Songs. Blessed indeed is the one who enters the holy place; far more blessed the one who enters the holy of holies. Blessed is the one who keeps sabbaths; more blessed the one who keeps the sabbath of sabbaths. Blessed likewise is the one who understands the songs and sings them — for no one sings except on feast days — yet far more blessed is the one who sings the Song of Songs. And just as the one who enters the holy place still needs many things before he can go into the holy of holies, and the one who keeps the sabbath God appointed for the people still needs much before he can keep the sabbath of sabbaths, so it is hard to find anyone who, passing through all the songs contained in the Scriptures, can rise to the Song of Songs.

You must go out from Egypt, and once you have gone out from the land of Egypt you must cross the Red Sea, so that you can sing the first song: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified. Yet even if you have sung the first song, you are still far from the Song of Songs. Walk the desert land in the spirit until you come to the well that kings dug, and there sing the second song. After that draw near the holy land, and standing on the bank of the Jordan sing Moses’ song: Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Again you must take the land under Jesus as soldiers and inherit the holy land, and let the bee prophesy to you and judge you — for Deborah is interpreted “bee” — so that you may also utter the song that stands in the book of Judges. Climbing next into the volume of Kingdoms, come to the song when David fled from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul and said: The Lord is my firmament and my strength and my refuge and my deliverer. You must reach Isaiah, so that with him you may say: I will sing a song to my beloved of his vineyard. And when you have passed through all these, climb higher still, so that as a soul made fair you may sing with the Bridegroom this Song of Songs.

Of how many persons it is composed I am not sure. Yet as you pray and God reveals, I seem to find four persons in it: the Bridegroom and the Bride; with the Bride, young women; with the Bridegroom, companies of companions. Some things are said by the Bride, some by the Bridegroom, some by the young women, some by the Bridegroom’s companions. It is fitting that at a wedding there should be a throng of young women with the Bride and a crowd of young men with the Bridegroom. Do not look for any of this outside those who have been saved by the preaching of the gospel. Understand Christ as the Bridegroom, and the Church as the Bride without spot or wrinkle, of whom it is written that he might present to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Those who are faithful yet are not of that sort the word has just described, but have somehow attained a measure of salvation — mark them as believing souls, the young women with the Bride. Angels, and those who have come to the perfect man, understand as the men with the Bridegroom. See then four orders for me: the one and the one, and two choirs answering each other — the Bride singing with the young women, the Bridegroom singing with his companions.

And when you have understood this, hear the Song of Songs, and hasten to understand it, and to say with the Bride what the Bride says, so that you may hear what the Bride too has heard. But if you cannot say with the Bride what the Bride said, so as to hear what is spoken to the Bride, hasten at least to be among the Bridegroom’s companions. And if you are still beneath even them, be with the young women who linger in the Bride’s delights. For these are the persons in this book, which is at once a story and a wedding-song; from it the nations too claimed an epithalamium for themselves, and a poem of this kind was taken up — for an epithalamium is what the Song of Songs is. First the Bride prays, and at once in the midst of her prayers she is heard. She sees the Bridegroom present; she sees young women joined to her company. Then the Bridegroom answers her, and after the Bridegroom’s words, while he suffers for her salvation, the companions answer that until the Bridegroom is on his couch and rises from the passion they will make certain ornaments for the Bride.

Let him kiss me: kisses through Moses and the prophets§2

2But now the very words must be set down in which first the voice of the Bride at prayer is heard: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. The sense is this: How long will my Bridegroom send me kisses through Moses, send me kisses through the prophets? I want already to touch his own mouth; let him come himself, let him come down himself. So she prays to the Bridegroom’s Father and says to him: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And because she is such that that prophetic word is fulfilled over her — While you are still speaking I will say, Here I am — the Bridegroom’s Father hears the Bride and sends his Son. Seeing him whose coming she had begged, she ceases to pray and speaks to him close at hand: For your breasts are better than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments than all spices.

Imperative for optative; breasts, breast, and little breast§3

3Let him kiss me, then, with the kisses of his mouth. It is the custom of the Scriptures to put the imperative for the optative, as there: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name! — for “would that it be hallowed”; and now in the present place: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for “would that he kiss me.” Then she catches sight of the Bridegroom. He comes anointed with ointments; he could not come to the Bride otherwise, nor was it fitting that the Father should send the Son to the wedding otherwise. With varied ointments he anointed him and made him Christ. He comes breathing diverse fragrances and hears: For your breasts are better than wine. Fittingly the divine word names the same thing with different terms according to the character of the places. When a victim is offered in the law and the sense wants to show it, it says “the little breast of the separation.” But when someone reclines with Jesus and enjoys communion with his thoughts, it does not say “little breast,” as above, but “breast.” And when the Bride speaks to the Bridegroom, because a wedding song is being introduced, she does not name a little breast as in the sacrifice, nor a breast as in the disciple John, but breasts, saying: For your breasts are better than wine.

Your name is ointment poured out§4

4Your name is ointment poured out. It is a prophetic mystery. No sooner has the name of Jesus come into the world than ointment is proclaimed poured out. As ointment, when it is poured, spreads its fragrance far and wide, so Christ’s name, wherever it is named, scatters sweetness everywhere. Many have had spices. The queen of the South brought spices to Solomon, and many others have possessed spices; yet however many anyone may have had, they cannot be compared with Christ’s fragrances, of which the Bride now says: The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices. I judge that Moses too had spices, and Aaron, and each of the prophets; but if I see Christ and catch by smell the sweetness of his ointments, at once I give sentence and say: The fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.

Therefore the young women loved you§5

5Therefore the young women loved you. Because through the Holy Spirit the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, the name of pouring is fittingly inserted: Your name is ointment poured out. Saying this, the Bride catches sight of the young women. While she was asking the Bridegroom’s Father and speaking close to the Bridegroom himself, the young women were not yet present; but in the midst of the prayers the chorus of young women enters and is praised by the Bride’s words. Therefore the young women loved you. And they drew you. And the young women answer: After you we will run into the fragrance of your ointments. How beautifully the Bride’s attendants do not yet have the Bride’s confidence. The Bride does not follow behind; she walks at his side, takes the Bridegroom’s right hand, and her hand is held in the Bridegroom’s right; but the servants come in after him.

I am black and beautiful§6

6Again the Bride answers the young women: I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. She is indeed beautiful, and I can find how the Bride is beautiful; but we ask how she is black and without brightness, yet fair. She has done penance for sins; conversion has granted her beauty, and therefore she is sung as beautiful. Yet because she is not yet cleansed of every stain of sins, not yet washed unto salvation, she is called black — but she does not remain in that dark color; she becomes white as well. So when she rises to greater things and begins to climb from low things to high, it is said of her: Who is this who comes up whitened? I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem. And you, churchman, turn your speech to the daughters of Jerusalem and say: the Bridegroom loves me more and cherishes me more than you, who are many daughters of Jerusalem; you stand outside and see the Bride entering the chamber.

My mother’s sons fought against me§7

7My mother’s sons fought against me. We must consider how the Bride says, My mother’s sons fought against me, and when the brothers’ fight rose against her. Look at Paul, the persecutor of the Church, and you will understand how a son of her mother fought against her. The Church’s persecutors did penance, and her adversaries, turned again to the sister’s standards, preached the faith they had once been destroying. In this prophetic spirit the Bride now sings: They fought in me; they set me as a keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept. I the Church, I the Bride, I without spot, have been set as keeper of many vineyards by my mother’s sons, who once fought against me. Held by that anxious care, while I keep many vineyards I have not guarded my own. Understand this of Paul and of any other of the saints who is anxious for the salvation of all, and you will see how, not keeping his own vineyard, he keeps the vineyards of others.

Tell me where you pasture at noon§8

8Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon. I do not ask about other times — when in the evening, when at dawn, when you pasture at the sun’s setting. I seek that time when the day is in flower, when in full light you move in the brightness of your majesty. Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon. Watch carefully wherever you read “noon.” In Joseph the brothers take their meal at noon; angels are received as Abraham’s guests at noon; and other such things. Search and you will find that divine Scripture does not take up each word vainly and by chance. Who among us, do you think, is worthy to reach as far as noon and see where the Bridegroom pastures, where he lies down at noon? For unless you tell me, I begin to be tossed about wandering, and while I seek you I run upon others’ flocks.

If you do not know yourself: goats, not sheep§9

9After these words the Bridegroom threatens her and says: either you will know yourself, that you are a king’s bride and beautiful and made beautiful by me — for I have presented to myself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle — or know that if you do not know yourself and do not know your dignity, you will suffer what follows. If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out upon the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your goats. For he will set the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out upon the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your goats in the shepherds’ tents. On the shepherds’ tracks, he says, you will be last — not among the sheep, but among your goats; and dwelling with them you will not be able to be with me, that is, with the good shepherd.

I have likened you to my cavalry; cheeks, neck; the couch and likenesses of gold§10

10I have likened you to my cavalry among Pharaoh’s chariots. If you wish to understand, O Bride, how you ought to know yourself, learn to whom I have compared you, and then you will see that you are such as ought not to be disfigured, once you recognize your own beauty. What then is this: I have likened you to my cavalry among Pharaoh’s chariots? I know the Bridegroom as a rider, the prophet saying: And his riding is salvation. You have been likened, then, to my cavalry among Pharaoh’s chariots. As far as my cavalry differs — I who am the Lord, his horses and his chariots — as far, I say, as my cavalry differs from Pharaoh’s horses, so far are you better than all daughters, you the Bride, you the churchly soul, better than all souls that are not churchly. Therefore if you are a churchly soul, you are better than all souls. Then he describes the Bride’s beauty with spiritual love: Your cheeks are like a turtledove’s. Your neck is like necklaces.

After this the Bridegroom is on his couch. For he rested and slept like a lion and like a lion’s cub, that afterward it might be asked: Who will raise him up?. While he sleeps, the Bridegroom’s companions — the angels — appear to the Bride and comfort her with these words: We cannot make you ornaments of gold; we are not so rich as your Bridegroom, who bestows on you a golden necklace; we will make likenesses of gold, for we have no gold. And even this is cause for joy, if we make likenesses of gold, if we fashion stamps of silver. We will make likenesses of gold for you with stamps of silver, yet not for every time, but until your Bridegroom rises from his couch. For if he has risen, he himself will make gold for you, he himself will make silver, he himself will adorn your mind and sense, and you will be truly rich in the Bridegroom’s house as a perfect Bride — to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.